Throw Out 50 Things

Just a short update.....

1. Rubber Duck
2. 4 books donated to a used book store
3. Raincoat donated to Thrift Store
4. Denim Jacket donated to Thrift Store
5. Sweater donated to Thrift Store
6. Old Tennis Shoes trashed
7. Another used coat trashed, no one should be wearing that fugly thing! LOL

I need to get busy & get rid of some stuff! My list is growing too slowly.

Tomorrow I should have more knitting updates too! Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Thankful for my Friends

This past Thanksgiving I had something to be extremely thankful for.... my friends! My one & only childhood BFF, Beth, still super special to me after all this time (we went to kindergarten together & graduated HS together). And all of my online friends, some new & some who were actually listening when I first started my blog. Each & every one of you are special to me, and I am so thankful for your friendship!

Speaking of friends.... my pal Chan sent me a couple goodies. Sorry the photos aren't too great today, it's chilly & rainy outside, not conducive to good photo taking. She sent me a wheel (I think that's what you call it) of green pencil roving, isn't it pretty!? I put a little piece of it over the card there so you could see how thin it is. It's gonna be super easy to spin that up! She also sent a cute little card that she made, I wish the photo had turned out better on that. And Miss Sissy picked me out a little box for a present, & it has chocolate in it!

Speaking of friends..... my pal Jessi sent me a gift card to Harvest Moon Designs for my birthday. I got lots of great patterns!! And Sue (Harvest Moon Designs) is super sweet. This cloth is the Victorian Labyrinth pattern, I think it came out nice even though I'm not crazy about the color of the yarn. Hopefully my SIL will like it, her kitchen is done in sage green & creams.

And here is another dishcloth that I finished recently. This goes with the Winter set I've been working on, it's a mitten cloth stitched in light blue cotton. Hope everyone is having a good weekend! I'm staying in & knitting, its raining....

Whiskers on Wednesday

Well, I just about forgot it was Wednesday! While blog surfing I found this on Robin's blog, thought it was funny & since Jasmine is hiding from the camera again tonight.... here is my contribution to WoW this week.


Hmmmm.... this could be pretty accurate. LOL

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

New Listings

Just in time for the holidays.... It's been a while since I posted about new listings in my Etsy shop. I've had my usual standards listed like usual. But this weekend I've been trying to get in some sort of holiday mood. Needless to say, my holiday cheer has been a bit lacking. So I made up some cute holiday themed markers....

Cute little mice with their buck teeth & Santa hats on & a piece of cheese tied up with a bow, just what they've been wanting for Christmas! LOL And I just had to include this shot that shows the back, cause these little guys are just as cute from behind!And here we have some silly penguins with Santa hats on. Hmmm.... for some reason most of my critters seem to have funky, crosseyed vision problems or dental problems. Oh well, makes them more endearing if you ask me. Who couldn't love a cute crosseyed penguin? And they're all decked out for the holidays, what could be better?

And a few more standard sets are now available. Pigs, regular Mice, & regular Penguins.

Maybe tomorrow I will make some sheep with Santa hats.....

Whiskers on Wednesday

Dang! I had the photos ready & everything! And I still forgot to save my WoW post last night!

Well, better late than never, especially here lately. Between time just getting away from me & Princess Jasmine running from the camera every time I get it out... our WoW posts have come up missing.

These photos aren't great but they will show you that she does more than just lie around & look pretty. Which she does very well. We had a little fun with a yarn scrap the other night. She enjoyed it for about 30 minutes. I threw it in the trash later that night, I was afraid she would try to eat it or something crazy. Even though if she wanted to eat yarn it is plenty accessible around here. Luckily she seems to ignore it unless I actually give her a snip to play with. Unlike naughty Miss Gretchen. Or.... was it really Miss Sissy & before Mom (Chan) came back in the room she plopped her little sis on the yarn so she'd get blamed???? Hmmmm..... :)

Vampires???

Who doesn't love a good vampire story? LOL

Recently I've gotten hooked on the Southern Vampire Series by Charlaine Harris. Here is the description for Book #1: Dead Until Dark

Sookie Stackhouse is a cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana, but she keeps to herself and doesn't date much because of her "disability" to read minds. When she meets Bill, Sookie can't hear a word he's thinking. He's the type of guy she's waited for all of her life, but he has a disability, too--he's a vampire with a bad reputation. When one of Sookie's coworkers is killed, she fears she's next.

In the different places I've read about them, they have been compared to the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter books and the Twilight Books. However I haven't read either of these other series. I can only vouch for the Southern Vampire Series. They are good stories. A lot of fantasy, we are talking vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures here after all. A bit of romance, lots of humor (what's funnier than vampire humor I ask you?), a bit of suspense, and just good ol entertainment. Now I know that Vampire/Romance/Fantasy/Suspense/sometimes Quirky Humor books aren't for everyone. But if you like that sort of story you will really like these! They also have a few racy loves scenes in there too, so if that isn't you thing, be warned. They aren't scary though. I can't do scary, for some reason as I've gotten older (I used to love scary movies & such when I was younger) scary stuff gives me nightmares. And I can tell you that I haven't had one of those nightmares since I've been reading these....

Here are the covers for all the books so far in the series...

For those of you who like reading ebooks, Fictionwise has them HERE. And for those of you who like actual books that you can touch Amazon has them HERE.

Right now I'm on Book #5: Dead as a Doornail. I really enjoyed #1-#4. And stayed up really, really late a couple of nights cause I couldn't put them down. I believe that #9, Dead and Gone, is supposed to be released sometime in the near future. I have also seen something about them being made into a series on HBO, called True Blood. Has anyone seen those yet? I'm gonna have to go check that out & see if I can rent them at Block Buster or something....

Okay, I'll let you go now. I just thought with all the book talk here lately, I'd share with you my current reads that have been keeping me up late. :)

Before & After

I actually have some new homespun yarn to show you. The Pink/Purple fiber is superwash wool. I didn't want the purple in there so I pulled those sections out before I spun it up. I'll do the purple separately another day. The Greens and the Purple Mix fibers are 100% wool. I have a project that I'm planning for those, but I need a bit more before I start. All of it turned out lovely and super soft. I am finally able to spin a sport weight 2 ply. And I've graduated to my 6:1 ratio. Getting better every day at this spinning stuff. Won't be long before I'm able to spin some sock weight yarn!!I also have one small finished knitted object. I'm still working on 2 larger projects that I have to have finished by Christmas, but I just wanted to have something, anything finished. So I knitted up a little snowflake dishcloth. I'm just not crazy about these picture cloths, you can't see the pattern in them really well. Oh well, it's a gift for my Grandmother, she will love them anyway. There are 6 in the set, and I have one done, 5 to go! LOL

I did knit on all of my projects a little this weekend. I think I've finally gotten my knitting mojo back. I haven't wanted to knit on any of them for the past 2 weeks.

And I read a little, I have to stay away from the books or I'll get absolutely nothing else accomplished. Is anyone else like that? Once you pick a good book up you just can't put it down.... one more page, one more chapter, next thing you know you've abandoned all your weekend chores & it's 2am & you have to work tomorrow!

So, I stayed away from the books for the most part & spent most of my weekend cleaning. It wasn't any fun but it REALLY needed to be done! With all the dust bunnies that I killed this weekend, it's no wonder I couldn't breathe in this house the past couple of weeks! :)

Hope everyone had a good or at least productive weekend!

Deadline & a Button

The deadline for our Throw Out 50 Things is January 1st, 2009 — aim to start the new year with a little less clutter! And remember, if you can donate your items, please do! Your unused items may be someone else’s treasure/pleasure!

Anyone who wants to join in please do! Head on over to Monica's blog & sign the Mister Linky.

Thanks Monica for the button & the motivation to get rid of some stuff! :)

Throw Out 50 Things

While blog surfing this evening, I came across this on Monica's blog.... Throw Out 50 Things.
This seems like a good time to de-clutter some things that should have been gone a long time ago! I even started today.... I finally "retired" my rubber ducky, who has kept me company in the shower for many years. He had seen better days. :) Maybe I'll get a new ducky in my stocking this year. I know there are more clothes in my closet that I should donate cause I don't wear them anymore, maybe some shoes I could get rid of, some yarn that I don't like that I could donate somewhere, other craft items I don't need, and I really should get rid of some of the "knickknacks" I have around here! And I really need to throw out my old potholders & either make new ones or get some new ones at WallyWorld....

If anyone else wants to join in, go visit Monica's post & sign the Mister Linky.

Lookie! A secret no more!

Well, I'm finally able to show everyone the original "Secret" project! My Bonsai Tunic! But first, let me give you the link to elann.com where you can see their wonderful photography & their pretty model wearing my Bonsai Tunic. And read the description, they put my name in there! :) This pattern was designed by Norah Gaughan and published in the Interweave Knits Magazine, you can purchase a copy here, or you can look at it on Ravelry here.

This was a wonderful pattern. I found it really easy to follow. And it knit up really quick. For me, it took about a month & a half, just evenings here & there.... some of you faster or more time friendly knitters out there could whip one of these out in no time! Definitely do the gauge swatch & wet block it though, trust me, it makes a big difference! Mine came out to the exact measurements that the pattern called for! I even impressed myself with that one! LOLMy sweater is on it's way back to me from elann.com in Canada as I type. If it looks half as good on me as it did their model (I'm not as tall or as skinny), I think I'll wear it for the family to-do's around the holidays. :)

The Stairs Won!

I got a booboo at work this morning.... here is a little tidbit for you, make sure your fingers are out of the way when shutting the attic stairs!

OUCHIE!

And here is a finished shot of the kitchen floor finally! I love it! We did an awesome job if I do say so myself. Now we just need to save up a little $ so we can get new baseboards up. The next project will be putting beadboard on the kitchen walls.... I'm just glad that I finally have a kitchen floor!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Did you?